More for the warchest. And now to sleep.
A good summation of what the Apocryphal entails. The life of a worthy protagonist is always eventful, their stories filled with struggle and suffering. No matter how much they might want to, they can't just fuck off into a cave somewhere and train until they're ready. The only true and lasting peace they will know is at the end of their stories, in an idyllic happily ever after or the silence of their grave.
But Cursebearer's don't get the former, not with the Apocryphal. There will always be another challenge to overcome, another hurdle to climb. Battle without limit or surcease. On and on, never knowing rest until their Curse has been lifted after countless aeons or they die in the attempt. In that light, Odyssial truly is the end of stories.
After all when he's free, everyone will get their happily ever after.
They traveled by means of the Armament, himself and Gisena either riding in the cockpit or perched somewhere atop its towering shoulders. The going was slow, the way uncertain, and Letrizia frequently had to adjust their route to account for distortions of space. There was no science in Verschlengorge's perusal of the Voyaging Realm, only instinct, which its pilot could only vaguely feel. And yet it was a pleasant enough journey, when they were not beset by monsters from outside realms. They rarely encountered ill weather, and could shelter under Verschlengorge until rain or oppressive shine had passed.
The more I hear about Vershlengorge, the more worried I become. It definitely feels like we're intended to get in it but its maybe the most evil seeming mech I've ever seen. The fact that piloting well requires communion with something we described as an "abomination" on first sight is something that we should be rightfully wary of. I think it might be a blessing that we didn't take the Feast; we might have to go inside the giant evil robot eventually but there's no call to become more like it.
Otherwise, the journey seems relatively gentle, even with the period monster attacks. As a sidenote, weather in this realm must be absolutely crazy with all the spatial distortions, especially if they apply to light an such. Curious to see the different biomes that might exist on this dungeon world too, rain and sun is neat but I can't imagine the entire thing is made up of rolling hills of grass.
One meandering day, they forded a river, titanic machine wading through the glimmering murk of the rapids that raged and frothed about its shins. Gisena sat on the Armament's shoulder, bare feet dangling merrily off the side, exulting in the occasional dash or spray of water that reached them at this height.
Legs folded meditatively, he scanned the horizon, alert to threats. Here, their mobility was impaired until they crossed the river. Unstable footing would give any enemy a superb opportunity to attack-
Deftly his hand reached out, catching Gisena's thrown slipper before it struck him. It was a flimsy thing of lace the color of her hair; likely a fortune to find dyes of that color. Could he ransom it?
"Come join me!" She called, waving him over. "Live a little!"
He walked over, bearing casual to mask vengeful intent: set on extracting his pound of flesh, or at least on depriving her of any further ammunition.
Ah, the duality of man. Gisena's indifference to life and death is charming as ever, as are her feet. Surprised her shoes haven't been thoroughly ruined by the travels though if they're as flimsy as the hero says; maybe an application of raw
findross? I admit, I laughed when I saw his first thought was to ransom the fucking shoe, what a neat little bit of characterization for Hunger.
I'm curious as to how exactly Hunger planned on gaining vengeance, flicking her on the forehead? And I'm sure his desire to take her shoes is purely professional and surely won't open up countless surfaces of attack for Gisena to bully him over his desire to touch her dainty toes. How foolish Hunger, you would have won the battle but lost the war. Good thing you were interrupted or that could have been a fatal mistake.
As he approached, she made to pull him alongside her with a light gesture, but exerted unusual intensity, her eyes alert.
He leaned forward on one knee, bringing him level with her.
"You sensed something?" He whispered, keeping an aggrieved scowl on his face.
"Mhm!" She responded cheerfully, eyes flickering for a moment to a point on the horizon. "Thanks ever so much for bringing my shoe back, hun! I'd be absolutely beside myself if I lost it!"
"How many of these do you even have?" he asked.
"Right now? Just the one."
"Hmph."
For all the banter and teasing, it's clear that these two have a decent level of rapport and communication, especially for random strangers who know basically nothing about each other. Is this a result of the INT and CHA of Nightmare Praetor? If so, I'm really glad it won. I really want to see scenes with these two getting closer now, in a flirty but platonic friendship.
Not husband and wife though, friends with benefits is about as far as I'm willing to bargain down to and only after years of time spent together. The hero has his wife and Gisena frankly deserves someone who can give her their full attention. I'm honestly wondering if we should even take her along; she's great but without Retinue, her relevance with decline with Accretion's importance. This place is at least safe, reasonably prosperous, at or below her level and filled with technological shit. Better than whatever hellhole the Geas will throw her into next where she might end up both unhappy and a liability.
Perhaps we can come and visit some day? Or summon her to our location before sending her back. The Geas is cruel but nothing is beyond a Progression-type Cursebearer in time.
He dropped the slipper and drew the Forebear's Blade, dashing up and across the Armament's enormous shoulders to reach its one o'clock position, where an Astral Rift was halfway through the process of opening. It looked exactly as he'd imagined, a jagged tear in the fabric of reality exposing void beyond. Within that darkness fluxed seams of color like starlight, lacing up and around each other, busily spirited as if embroidering the edges of the world.
He cut down the first creature that emerged, a ghastly thing of needles and claws, and behind him was a surge of Gisena's power as she unleashed a Tide of Nullity in the opposite direction, reknitting the smaller apertures in reality's weave, preventing them from being flanked.
The next creature was a shelled variant, his blade deflecting off its armor, but a quick strike with the pommel pulverized its guard, its torso cratered as he kicked it off the side. Verschlengorge's leftmost head snapped languidly in its direction, and the creature perished with a gruesome crunch.
I wonder why they bothered with the doublespeak when it was an Astral Rift? Can the monsters that come out be sentient? Or was she just having fun? I'm also curious to see the commonalities between Nullity resealing the rifts and the Armaments forcibly restabilising reality. As a sidenote, how much do you want to bet that part of the plot is gonna end up being about the overuse of Astral technology potentially leading to mass reality failures in the future, giving a real humanitarian purpose to our conquest as we try coordinate humanity so that they can avoid a full blown Astral invasion.
Also, does anyone think that Vershlengorge gets anything about of eating Astral beings? I can't tell what's worse, if it does and is slowly recovering its strength by doing so or it doesn't and just eats shit for fun. I'm not even going to entertain the idea that its purely for combat effectiveness because look at the fucking thing. As a sidenote, just noticed the foreshadowing of pommel strikes being useful against armour, rip. Even if it wasn't intentional, I still feel dumb for not thinking of that kind of tactic.
"My lord, Miss Gisena, we've got incoming!" Letrizia announced, voice tinged with urgency. They felt the Armament shift beneath them, adopting a lower, heavier stance.
"My lord," huh? Compared to the similarly ennobled Gisena, its clear we're somewhat more distant, though I suppose that's to be expected. I'm guessing either Knowledge will either make her loosen up a bit or reinforce our status in her eyes. I'm hoping for the former to be honest, our best chance of being sensibly integrated into this society is with her help.
If Gisena is the gorgeous, intelligent and teasing big sister, I wouldn't mind being the coldhearted, grizzled and ultimately caring elder brother (who is also absolutely gorgeous, make no mistake). Alternatively, we end up as something of a mentor to her. I don't think we'd be half bad at it with our stats, unique abilities and extensive martial experience.
"We're handling it," He shouted back, but she merely pointed forward with the giant's hand, showing a galleon moored on the far bank. There was a ballista mounted atop its prow, bolts gleaming like the noontime sun. As they watched, the ship unmoored and advanced towards them, unfurling a flag of blackest pitch. Its oars moved ceaselessly through the churning rapids, steady as if impervious to the tide.
As Verschlengorge had adopted a hunched position, the emerging Astral beasts now rained down on them from above.
"Perfect timing," he groaned, flipping his sword around. But this was not really a surprise. May you live in interesting times.
Oars? Now that's a hell of a thing. Who the fuck fights a giant monster while on a ship powered by oars?
You got what you asked for, my man. I'm wondering if this was the Apocryphal softballing us due to our relative inexperience as a Cursbearer. Alternatively, the guy we murdered is actually kinda important or will be missed and it maneuvered in our way because it thought we were likely to kill him and cause trouble for ourselves, minimal effort for maximum trouble. Can't be too much trouble given his level of equipment though, unless the circumstances surrounding him were paticularly weird. Wish we'd gotten to learn his story, though I suppose we might anyway if my theory holds up.
The worst would be if this guy was actually the protector of a settlement nearby or something and he attacked Versh for being a giant, obviously evil monster surrounded by Astral beings. If that's the case, I'll really regret not fighting harder for being prudent. Doesn't seem super likely though.
Pirates. And awfully confident, to approach as obviously large and well-protected a target as this. He and Gisena combined could address either of the threats easily, but their strength apart was not so great. The ship was obviously magical, but its crew might not be, so Nullity's power would be better served against the Astral beasts, who her bolts would at least stun.
"Gisena! Focus on the beasts and the Rift! I'll deal with the pirates."
Oof, more possible signs that perhaps these guys weren't just pirates. If they were just looking for money, why would they attack what looks like a giant monster? I'm starting to think they might've been Astral whalers or something. Also, I'm quite glad our boy is a veteran of a thousand battles and a skilled tactician or the Doom would make him really obnoxious in this situation.
As he spoke, the ship continued to approach, gaining with impetuous speed. A set of powerfully launched grappling hooks shot out from the shadowy figures on its deck, latching onto pits, gouges, and crevices in Verschlengorge's armor. As presumptive boarders began making their way up the ropes, he ran down, severing one on his way, and tucked the Forebear's Blade between his teeth as he grabbed another. With his open hand he rode the rope down, the friction sting of passage burning through his gauntlet, and leapt to land heavily on the deck, ruinous force splintering the site of impact. The ship unbalanced, heaving as if roiled.
So, so very swashbuckling. That they've got grappling hooks and not something else might be an indication that they're pirates after all. Wonder what they're user to launch it, that could certainly be a valuable piece of loot if they aren't just chucking it really, really hard. Also, one of the things I really like about your writing is just how much heft things have.
The fights feel weighty because you've got a good sense of their potential effects with regards to physics. Seram's uses of Thermal and Kinetic Amplitude stick out to my mind in paticular, as the research into laser weapons you did for the Photon Helix. I still remember the
passage you wrote to illustrate Control's danger and power. It just gives things more weight to see them actually have effects like this, makes battles feel like real and not just people LARPing superpowered fights like the MCU can at times.
Only tangentially relevant but I felt like gushing I guess.
No time for games. He released the Blade from his mouth and caught it with his now-free hand, then turned and sent an arc of blade-wind through the grappling ropes, severing them at once. Pirates rushed at him, men in hauberks of dark plate wreathed in shadow, but he launched a second cleaving strike down into the ship itself, carving a great abscess in the hull to impede their movement.
I'm assuming the blade-wind is an example of Accretion bullshit because I'm 99% sure that ain't cricket with physics. That the people rushed the obvious human being immediately rather than back the fuck off is another hit against my "not a pirate" theory. Kinda feel sad we couldn't keep the ship, even if it needed fucking oars it seemed cool. We should work on grabbing a pocket dimension or something next, both for safety and to store more sweet loot. Unfortunately, Accretion doesn't seem too conducive to that kind of thing, not unless we decide to add a backpack or whatever to our core panoply, which would be lame as fuck.
Ignoring them, he turned to the ballista and began to saw away at the string of its bow. It was curiously resilient, thread the color of gold that bounced sprightily away from the edge of his sword, but he pinned it in place with a foot and it yielded swiftly enough.
By the time he had carved his way through, a number of pirates had crossed the gap. He grabbed a group of ballista bolts and hurled them, catching two in the stomach; they groaned piteously when skewered, golden lightning discharging through their forms. His work done, he kicked the remaining bolts overboard and dropped down the side of the ship, breaking his fall by jamming his blade into its hull, and made his way over to the earlier cut. A few dozen blows and he could split the ship in twain; such was the power of ruin embedded within the Forebear's Blade.
That they have such enchanted weaponry is interesting. Not surprising if they thought attacking a mecha was a good idea but it suggests a level of civilization somewhere on or near the river. Too bad we had to disable it, I would've quite liked a ballista for Versh to use, even if it is only as a throwing weapon.
Regardless, I really hope the mecha can fish the bolts out of the water if they haven't been ruined carried away by the current. While our blade-wind provides a decent ranged weapon for the distances we'd be able to throw them, I'd like an opportunity for our boy to study them with Gisena's help. Also, nice to learn what's up with the power of ruin. Seems to do enormous damages to structures, which would certainly fit its name. Honestly, I keep forgetting the Forebear's Blade is as broken as the Hero. We've really gotta repair it.
He spared a glance for Gisena. Armed with Letrizia's sidearm she was holding her own against the nullified beasts, and Verschlengorge did its best to sweep the largest creatures aside. But focused on immediate battle she couldn't spare the attention to close the largest Rift, and they could well be overwhelmed in time.
Nice to see Gisena getting to live out her degenerate sci-fi isekai fantasies. I can almost hear her telling the Maiden to suck it from here, who needs Graces. She's going to be wildly busted when she had a chance to go full Iron Man. We really ought to get some anti-magic resistance or we're gonna end up being put in the toilet, which is just not allowed. Being able to fight at Gisena's side while she uses the Tides is just an ancillary benefit, honest.
He hoisted himself back up to ship's deck, snatching a grappling hook from the corpse of a crewman, when he was intercepted by a foreboding figure armored in black. This was no hauberk but full plate, heavy enough to leave impressions in the wood where it tread. Darkness billowed in vast, eerie plumes from that armor, spilling upwards in streamers: the night sky's incursion against sun and blue.
In its left hand was a shield, in its right a great curving blade, alive with dark-violet flame.
As the Tyrant's had been, the day he became a widower.
Interesting times indeed. He felt his gorge begin to rise. With an effort of will he held himself back, but the instant he loosed the world would narrow into a single, inescapable dot of red.
The figure spoke, confident but wary. "Halt, friend. A... misunderstanding. Clearly we mistook you for something else! Parlay?"
And now we see why Cursebearers dread the Apocryphal. It's the only Curse that seems intelligent. Given the general malevolence of Curses, one that's capable of fucking with you in specific and highly tailored ways is truly horrifying. You can play around the other Curses and some might not even affect you depending on what kind of person you are but the Apocryphal seems like its guaranteed to ruin your day, even if it doesn't kill you.
Moreover, how far does its reach extend? Did it know this guy existed and adjusted the tides of fate till the spatial distortions forced him into our path while a Rift opened? Did it reach back into the history of this world to adjust things so that his weapon of choice would bear an unfortunate resemblance to the Tyrant's? This guy had an entire life before he was turned into a random encounter for us.
Also, not sure if I like the precedent we set by murdering a dude who tried to negotiate, even if he was the attacker. Yeah, yeah, brigand, pirate, bandit whatever but we don't actually know this guy's circumstances or the reasons behind his actions. Also, if someone reflexively attacked Vershlengorge when they saw it, I wouldn't blame them at all.
Seriously, it's a giant, humanoid abomination with three fucking faces, all of which are mostly mouth. It's the most evil looking mech I've ever seen.
P.S: 1962 words.
